Educator Discourses on ICT in Education: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses a Critical Discourse Analyses (CDA) of Primary School Educators dialogue on the use of ICT in a disadvantaged schooling context. Considering the pivotal role educators play in the education system, it is expected that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) interventions in schools will be effective only if educators are willing and able to appropriate the intervention to their actual needs, and derive real benefits. One of the barriers to the meaningful integration of ICTs in education in developing countries is the lack of alignment between what funders and project implementers intended (on the one hand) and the social meanings educators assign to the technology (on the other). The aim of the study reported here was to understand the discourses around education and technology, as articulated by educators in disadvantaged contexts in South Africa. Data for the study was collected through in-depth interviews with teachers from under-resourced schools in Cape Town, in the Western Cape in South Africa. The results show that teachers appreciate the value of ICT in education and are willing to adopt it. However, at the same time, they feel they lack capacity and support to effectively achieve that goal. The study also shows that global discourses on ICT may deny teachers in disadvantaged communities the power to voice the challenges they face when integrating ICTs in their teaching processes.